Instigation
by Artificially Intelligent Data Anomaly
Summary: KitexElk oneshot. Review if you wish. It all started in the dungeon... Steeling himself, he made his way towards the bridge. Their eyes met. The city of beginnings... The Son of the Goddess watched as another beginning began within him.


Okay. This is a Kite x Elk fluff one-shot, so if you don't really like boy x boy, then I'd leave now. I don't care for it much, either (not due to boy x boy, but because I hate romance and fluff), but I thought of a cute scenario months ago, and I felt like writing it as a warm-up. I hope people enjoy this.

Note: Elk thinks of some stereotypical "gay" men in this. I'm not stereotyping or being intolerant. I couldn't care less about people's preferences. This is just what runs through some people's heads when they think about it, that's all. (And don't think I didn't forget about his (_confirmed_) infatuation with Mia, either.)

Also, I stole the "Log-In List" from .hack/chat. Bloody brilliant place for the most part, if you ask me.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the franchise known as "Project .hack." I own this fan fiction and the idea, unless some meanie had this idea first without me realizing it.

Summary: It all started in the dungeon... Steeling himself, he made his way towards the bridge. Their eyes met. The city of beginnings... The Son of the Goddess watched as another beginning began within him. (If you want a more detailed summary, check my bio. I usually add extra info about stories there.)

--------------

"HAH!"

Clang. Crash. Bang.

Elk marveled from the rear of the dungeon as Kite masterfully took down the four enemies in front of him. The beautiful sheen of his blades, the graceful arcs and dodges used to evade enemy attacks, the concentrated-yet-faraway look on his avatar's face. . .

Elk blinked and stopped himself, ashamed. How could he betray Mia with such thoughts?

But Kite was so pretty and brave. . . graceful. . .

"Elk! First Aid! I need it _now_!"

Kite's strained voice reached Elk's speakers, instantly making him alert. In his thoughts, he had completely forgotten his sole purpose for coming to the dungeon!

"Okay. . . Sorry for the wait!" Elk promptly cast La Repth, making sure to do so once more to heal all of the damage.

"That's fine, Elk!" Kite interrupted himself with a strained grunt as he back-flipped away from a Nightmare's spear. With a mix between a sigh and a moan, he added: "Here, use this!" The toxic orange-clad hero used a Mage's Soul on Elk, which promptly caused the Wave Master to mutter some embarrassed thanks.

As the enemies dwindled, Elk thought more about his little "crush" on Kite. It saddened him to think that he was betraying Mia in such a way, but it scared him even more that he was having this crush in the first place. Like many families, his wasn't the most tolerant towards. . .he mentally flinched when he thought the word. _Homosexuals_.

Elk didn't want to be a "homosexual." When he thought ofthe word, the stereotypical images of guys with thick, bushy mustaches, tight undershirts, and short-shorts came up, making him blanch slightly. Was that what he was supposed to be come? Elk was a pretty average-looking boy in Japan. Maybe slightly androgynous, but he couldn't have easily been mistaken for female.

He gasped aloud. Did that mean that he was doomed to become a long-haired man who ran around in dresses and spoke in a fake, falsetto voice? He didn't want to be that! He saw a guy like that in Harajuku one time. It may have been the most freakish sight he had ever laid his young, seventh grade eyes on.

(Coincidentally, Elk went on to see some much freakier sights than a hairy, skinny man in a low-cut dress in The World several weeks later. Damn those Phases and plot twists.)

Then again, there was Mia. . . She was a girl. (At least, he thought she was. You never know online. . .) Maybe that meant that there was some "hope" for him, still? Maybe it's not the worst thing to be bisexual. He heard that in America, it was a fad to be bisexual at around his age. It may even make him popular. (He knew that he was just kidding himself at this point.)

These roundabout thoughts led him back to being homosexual, which led to the dirtier aspects (of which I won't get into) that made him blush profusely.

---

Now, while all of those thoughts were transpiring in Elk's head, Kite had still been fighting the three small monsters that were left. He had figured out that Elk was not going to respond no matter how many times he chose the "First aid!" command, so he decided to continue the battle and heal himself.

_Maybe he went idle or something, _Kite thought._ That's not really like Elk, though._ He continued to slash at the mini-monsters until he got to the last one.

This is where it happened. The event that changed the destiny of Kite and Elk forever.

Maybe an explanation of what type of monster Kite fought next would help. This event happened quite awhile ago, so neither Elk or Kite could say what exactly the monster's name was, but a good description of it was given.

There are several types of this exact same monster running around the game. It sits atop a liquid ball and bounces around, casting spells on your party. Most gamers agree that these things with their pointed hats, various colors, and various elements, status attacks, and magic attacks are quite annoying, especially if you deal with more than one at once.

This particular monster was the sort that could cast spells to paralyze your avatar. As I said before, neither Kite nor Elk could remember the monster's name, so we are at a loss in this respect. Besides, this particular information is not vital.

All that one needs to know is that this particular monster decided to paralyze Kite right when he was about to deliver the death blow, promptly bouncing away in an almost comical manner afterwards. Kite was afraid that he was in trouble, but the program that ran the monster decided to attack Elk next.

_Well, at least maybe Elk will wake up now, _Kite thought almost cruelly.

And wake up Elk did. Regardless as to what some people thought, when a monster attacks your avatar in The World, you feel it. A slight jolt gets sent to you via your HMD (Head-Mounted Display), making you alert to the situation.

Gasping, Elk saw that the little creature in front of him was about to cast a spell that would make his HP go down to zero. So, without thinking, he bashed the monster over its head with his staff. Luckily, it only had one HP left anyway, so it died right before the spell was about to take effect.

The blue Wave Master gave a sigh of relief, sinking to the floor of the dungeon and leaning against the wall.

"That was a close call, wasn't it Kite? . . . Kite?" Elk looked over to where Kite was on the other side of the square dungeon room.

"Took you long enough. Welcome back, _hero_," Kite said rather sarcastically and maliciously, which was unlike him. Usually Kite forgave things with an understanding smile, but to actually go as far as to use a rather cruel online nickname given to loser players. . . Elk suppressed a sniffle.

To be truthful, Kite had been dealing with his own confused feelings as of late. Like Elk, he had dedication to a girl, albeit his dedication to Blackrose was still blossoming as of yet. . . But he had been subconsciously having conflicting feelings about Elk, and since he wasn't the brightest boy in the world, his conscious hadn't realized it yet and was making him act in an agitated manner whenever he was around the other boy.

Kite, being the kind soul he was, immediately balked when he realized he made Elk sad. "Elk, I'm sorry," he called from his character's paralyzed position across the room. He didn't have to shout, though, because this wasn't the real world -- a fact that Elk painfully noted in his head.

"I don't know what's going on. I must be stressed and overtired. Elk, please forgive me. . ." His voice genuinely sounded sad and somehow. . .vulnerable.

With a flood of feeling, Elk realized that Kite was just as vulnerable as he was. He just hid it better. This vulnerability he felt gave him the courage to do something that he would have never done otherwise.

With his head down, Elk trudged over to Kite in a rather dejected way. In a forlorn voice, he repeated, "Please forgive you?"

He got very close to Kite, making sure his face would fill up the Twin Blade's entire line of vision in his HMD. "I can't forgive you, Kite. I can't. . ." He looked away, the epitome of a hurting, depressed being.

Kite flinched offline when he realized how much damage his statement must've done. "Look, Elk, I'm extremely sorry. I shouldn't have been so harsh with you. I --"

Out of the blue, a single, pale finger pressed itself upon his avatar's lips, surprising Kite so much that he stopped speaking. In The World, you can mildly feel things that happen to your character (especially if you're an obsessed gamer and have the right mindset), but Kite was shocked that his mind was allowing him to feel this.

"Shhh," murmured Elk. "You know, it's sort of rude to interrupt someone." The crimson-eyed child was almost. . .smiling? Kite wanted to ask what was going on, but he kept his etiquette and his quiet.

"Anyway," Elk went on, quite confident and out-of-character. "How could I ever forgive you?" His avatar moved closer to Kite's, making the player behind it a little nervous and fluttery. The Wave Master looked down at the ground, seeming to also murmur something to himself, but Kite never caught it.

Elk looked up, directly into Kite's eyes. "How could I _ever _forgive you for making me betray Mia?" His wording was accusatory, but his tone was very soft and quiet.

Their digital silhouettes met, and Elk gently pressed his lips up against Kite's own. As he did it, Elk's mouth formed into a somewhat smile. This felt right. He didn't care about stereotypes. He would make his own rules. He loved Mia _and _Kite, and right now, he felt more content than he ever had in his entire life.

They pulled apart, and Elk began to blush a crimson streak. Part of him was hysterically shouting about how could he have ever done that, but the other half told him to grab Kite and do it again.

Compromising, he apologized to Kite and told him that he was sorry, but he couldn't complete the dungeon with him. With that, he promptly logged out.

---

Back in the dungeon, Kite's avatar's hand went up and covered the bottom-half of its face. _Elk _kissed _me? He honest-to-God just _kissed _me?_

The event was so mind-boggling to the poor hero, in fact, that he sat at his terminal for a good half an hour trying to process it. Finally, Blackrose logged in and found him, snapping him out of his daydreams and making him come with her to track down some sword or another. He complied, thinking about Elk the entire time. . .

_Oh, Elk,_ he thought to himself._ Why did you have to go and do that? . . . I'm sorry that I made you betray Mia, _his mind added as an afterthought._ Uhm. . . I. . . You've complicated things. _He let out a sigh, which Blackrose took to mean that Kite was getting tired.

"Don't worry! There are only a couple more rooms left until the Gott Statue," Blackrose said in her optimistically tough way. Slashing at a monster with her massive sword, she shouted, "Won't be long now!"

Kite sighed and nodded his head in agreement. He could recognize that he was beginning to have some feelings for Blackrose, but then Elk had to go and do that and confuse him.

Besides, he didn't want to be _gay_. He'd get, like, teased. It wasn't as if he had any problems with gay people. He didn't care less. It was just that. . . Well, there were just many societal precedents set that sort of discouraged it. And there were some people who would do a whole lot worse than just "discourage" a homosexual person. . .

He shook his head. If he truly liked Elk, then that wouldn't matter to him, he reasoned. _Maybe I'll see Elk soon again, and that'll make me reach a conclusion. _

---

Weeks passed, and neither the cobalt Wavemaster nor the tangerine Twin Blade had seen one another. Kite became more and more preoccupied with his thoughts of Elk (and his confusion about his own sexuality) and had become rather downtrodden by his own thoughts.

Elk, on the other hand, seemed to be quite giddy. Ever since he had kissed Kite, it was as if a heavy layer of oppression had been lifted off of him. He was always filled with this nervous, bright energy and seemed to hover about, always on the lookout for something. . .or _someone_. To the casual observer, Elk was the same old shy, quiet Wavemaster, but to those who knew him -- like Mia -- something was notably different.

---

One particular day, Elk was aimlessly wandering the streets of Mac Anu. His newfound nervous, bright energy had dimmed after a conversation he had had with Mia just moments before.

---

"So, Elk," Mia started, sitting on the railing of Mac Anu's main bridge and swinging her legs back and forth. "Lately, you've been. . . Different."

"Different?" Elk mirrored, the energy he felt swelling within him even then.

"Yes. Tell me, does it have something to do with Kite?" She said, dragging out her words and acting as if she were joking.

Elk's jaw clenched. To admit to it now was to take a gamble. . . "Maybe," he replied lamely. Some gamble.

To this, Mia's ears twitched and her posture stiffened slightly, telling Elk that it was no longer a joke.

"Eh, uhm, uh. . . Forget it, Mia. I was just joking. I'm not gay," he added quickly afterwards, thinking that discrimination may have been her issue.

Mia's face slowly turned to meet his, her expression still lazily slow, half-lidded, and joking. "It's okay, Elk. I'm no discriminator. If you love Kite, then so be it." By the time she reached the word "love," her voice had taken on a creepy, hard edge. Was she growling slightly?

Elk wanted to cry. He could admit it to himself. Mia had been acting so strange lately. Forgetting things, events, herself, him_. . . Was this what she was really like? He had known her for so long. _

"No!" he cried. "Mia, I, uhm, actually, I like y--"

"Unrequited love," she quietly muttered to herself, laughing as she did so. "Has it reversed itself, then? Cute." She stood, staying on the incorrect side of the railing of the bridge, as if to jump into the cold waters several feet below.

"Mia! Please listen! I--"

"Quiet!_" she roared, looking back at him with her ears pointed down and her pupils in thin slits. "Who are you? Who said you could talk to me? Goodbye!" She purposefully slipped off the bridge's edge, golden rings enveloping her and logging her out before her svelte, purple form touched the water. _

Elk sighed quietly to himself. "Well," he sadly joked aloud, "I guess it's true: cabbits don't _like water." _

---

So, since this energy and confidence that he had been feeling had dwindled, and he had nothing else better to do, Elk remained in Mac Anu and tried to keep as far away from that side of the main bridge as possible.

Sighing, he walked down the alley to where he first met Mia. At the time, Kite had ignored Elk completely -- as had Mia, when he thought about it -- and he figured it was a fitting place to sulk at.

"Memories, memories," he said, sitting down on the cobblestone next to the crate. "All I have and am surrounded by are memories. Nothing real, nothing wholesome, nothing satisfying.

"Why must all memories of mine bring about shame or sadness? Do my happy memories flee just torment me?"

Elk weakly laughed. If he kept it up, he'd have to become a web poet of some sort.

He paused, staring blankly at the dusky apartments in front of him.

Sighing, Elk decided to just stick to sulking.

---

Kite logged in for the first time in days. He stretched, reveling in the ecstasy of his virtual body.

"Hey, move it or lose it, buddy!" Another user -- a rude one, at that -- had just logged in and appeared barely two centimeters behind him.

"Jesus! You're lucky that our characters didn't overlap and cause a glitch."

Shoving Kite aside before he could properly apologize, the user trudged off.

The hero sighed, rubbing the shoulder that the other user had grabbed him by to shove him out of the way. So much for reveling in the ecstasy of his virtual body.

---

Only several minutes had passed since Elk began his brooding, but he already gasped in alarm. He had been watching the Log-In List, or the list of online users, and Kite's name had just appeared. There was a little happy face icon next to it, symbolizing that Elk had exchanged member addresses with him.

Although somewhat dismayed, Elk decided that the time had come for things to be settled. He stood up and made his way towards the main bridge.

---

Kite stood in the corner of the Chaos Gate's dead end, making sure to be out of the way of any incoming users. Currently, he was performing his usual rituals of going through his inventory, his stats, and finally, the Log-In List.

He had finally come to the last list, and shock registered on his face when he saw Elk's name.

_He's here?_ Kite had thought that Elk was staying offline to avoid him lately. He waited several seconds, wondering if Elk would check the list and log off.

Then a thought occurred to him that made his body go rigid. What if Elk saw his name on the list and actually went _looking for him_? The hero honestly couldn't decide if he found this to be a good thing or not.

Maybe I'll see Elk soon again, and that'll make me reach a conclusion.

Kite's words slowly drifted towards him from some realm of conscious. They caused him to wince and nod at once.

"Well," he murmured to himself, "I might as well see him."

Although somewhat dismayed, Kite decided that the time had come for things to be settled. He steeled himself and made his way towards the main bridge.

---

At the bridge, they met. The dark, inconspicuous shadow on one end of the bridge, and the bright, burning flame at the other. Their eyes made contact, ignoring the brilliant, eternal dawn or dusk, ignoring the many users running to and fro beside them, ignoring the sparkling water below them. . .ignoring everything but each other.

Neither was sure as to who began walking first, but both knew that the walk felt like a lifetime.

At last, in the middle of the bridge, they. . .

---

Mac Anu is a place of beginnings. Residents of The World begin their lives there. Over 12 million adventures and stories began there. The romance of Albireo and Hokuto began there. In a way, the Quest for the Twilight Dragon began there. Even The World itself begins there.

The place of beginnings. . .

The Son of the Goddess watched as yet another thing began within him.

---

Now, wasn't that a horribly and annoyingly open ending? Feel free to review and tell me what you think. If you like what I write, you should tell me; otherwise, I'll never know, assume that no one likes my stuff, and lose motivation. -laughs-

- A i D A


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